The United States as currently constituted will - (well) within the next decade - completely collapse.
Plan accordingly.
As the economy dwindles into full-on Third World oblivion - guess what goes away?
The middle class.
Look at the populace of any failed state. Like, say, Venezuela. Or California.
What you see is a few very rich people - and everyone else is destitute.
The US middle class - is rapidly evaporating….
Largest US Banks Grapple With Worst Write-Offs in Three Years:
“The biggest US banks are poised to write off more bad loans than they have since the early days of the pandemic as higher-for-longer interest rates and a potential economic downturn are putting borrowers in a bind.
“JPMorgan Chase & Co., Citigroup Inc. and Wells Fargo & Co., which report third-quarter results Friday, will join Bank of America Corp. - which comes Tuesday - in posting roughly $5.3 billion in combined third-quarter net charge-offs, the highest for the group since the second quarter of 2020, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.
“The figure is more than twice as high as a year earlier, as lenders contend with consumers struggling to keep up with rising interest rates and a commercial real estate industry still grappling with fallout from the pandemic.
“Citigroup Chief Executive Officer Jane Fraser said last month that her bank is starting to see signs of weakness in US consumers with low credit scores, who have had their savings eaten away by historic levels of inflation. Still, she said the vast majority have been able to handle the rate increases.
“‘Any hiccups in credit will be punished by the market,’ Erika Najarian, an analyst at UBS Group AG, said in a note to clients. ‘That said, there has been surprisingly little conversation about third quarter credit quality for large cap banks, even on either commercial real estate or some of the more publicized bankruptcies.’”
Miss Najarian says some very important stuff here.
She warns that people with anything other than perfect credit - like, say, the middle class - will be locked out of the borrowing market.
Because finite lending capital - will only get more and more finite.
First in line to borrow - is the federal government. Which owes $33+ trillion. And that tally is rocketing skyward.
The federal government absolutely insists on doing nothing other than spending ever increasing amounts of our money.
And the federal government keeps raising interest rates. To try to clean up the massive inflation they have created - by spending ever increasing amounts of our money.
Which makes DC’s debt more and more expensive to just maintain - let alone (guffaw) pay off.
That’s not a death spiral or anything.
Because all of that debt - must be serviced. As in: Paying the interest on it.
Sooner rather than later - if we aren’t already there? The federal government will be paying $1+ trillion per year - just in interest on the debt.
That’s not a death spiral or anything.
All of that ever-increasing money the federal government is borrowing - leaves less and less for the rest of us to borrow.
So anyone with anything other than perfect credit - will see their loan opportunities evaporate.
Until we have the Big Banks lending only to Big Government - and the biggest executives of the biggest of Big Businesses.
Oh wait: We’ve been seeing that descent into Venezuela-California for a while now….
Poor People Home Mortgages Down 46% - Rich People Art Collection Mortgages Up 30%
Americans Getting Rejected For Loans Hits Five-Year High
Things for We the Little People - were already getting quite awful…..
The Little Guy Can't Even Get a $200 Loan Anymore
And: Remember Miss Najarian saying this?:
“‘That said, there has been surprisingly little conversation about third quarter credit quality for large cap banks, even on either commercial real estate or some of the more publicized bankruptcies.’”
There is a LOT of bad debt out there. Owed by a whole lot of people - above and beyond just the middle class.
To wit: There are many, MANY businesses stuck with commercial property loans - on commercial properties they are no longer using.
And are unable able to sell - because no one else is using commercial property.
Because we are entering the post-commercial property age. As more and more people work from home, coffee shops,… - anywhere besides the commercial properties upon which their bosses owe huge.
And as Miss Najarian notes:
All of the Big Banks’ mass accumulation of bad debt - will soon start downgrading even their credit quality.
That’s not a death spiral or anything.
And “there has been surprisingly little conversation about” this massively awful development?
Because DC and Wall Street are feverishly working to prop up our collapsing system - as long as is possible.
So they can continue shoveling our money into their accounts - as long as is possible.
That’s not a death spiral or anything.